Dec 09. Blighter radar helps secure American border. Plextek’s Blighter radar is helping to detect and track illegal immigrants trying to enter the USA across the hills on the border with Mexico. Frustrated by the current intruder interception rate in their local area, a group of ranch owners have developed their own state-of-the-art multi-sensor surveillance systems, utilising the Blighter radar, to protect their land and help local law enforcement organisations intercept and apprehend the immigrants. The radar’s tall beam allows it to be sited on the hill tops, surveying the whole area. In a single sweep both the hill crests as well as the valleys/canyons are simultaneously scanned whilst still being able to see objects as close as twenty metres away. Being remote from a mains power supply, it is totally reliant on solar power. One of the ranch owners commented: “Of all the surveillance equipment we use here the Blighter radar has proven itself to be the most solid, reliable performer of all. It simply never falters. We regularly experience early morning coastal fog that renders our IR cameras useless. The radar then becomes the primary asset at our disposal. In conjunction with the recently added BlighterTrack software, the targets presented are nearly always verifiable illegals. We have reported many groups of aliens based on Blighter’s alarms alone with which the Border Patrol has made apprehensions.” So far the system, operating on an ‘as required’ basis over several kilometres of the border line, has been responsible for detecting hundreds of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the ranchers’ properties.
06 Jan 10. The Lockheed Martin-led Next Generation Identification (NGI) team has successfully delivered the first Advanced Technology Workstations (ATWs) as part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) new state-of-the-art biometrics system. The NGI workstations replace aging Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) Service Provider Workstations, bringing improved capabilities for the FBI’s service providers and analysts. “The current IAFIS receives an average of 160,000 fingerprint transactions per day, and on several occasions it has processed more than 200,000 transactions in a 24-hour period,” said FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Deputy Assistant Director Jerome M. Pender. “These ATWs will greatly improve the FBI’s ability to assess fingerprint matches.” The NGI program’s ATWs offer service providers and analysts significantly larger display screens with higher resolution and true color support, allowing them to see more detailed attributes of biometric data for more efficient decision-making.
06 Jan 10. New 112 screen command centre for Cardiff cameras. A new control room with 112 screens monitoring over 250 CCTV cameras across Cardiff is officially opening. Based at County Hall it will be manned by police and council officers in a bid to improve co-ordination. Apart from cutting crime one of the main aims is to improve the flow of traffic through the city as it will be connected to the road cameras. At least two council operators and a South Wales Police officer will be on duty in the room around the clock. The council and police force said it was “unique set-up”. Divided into two halves, 48 screens and 4 larger monitors will be operated by the traffic and tunnel control team. A further 60 monitors will be under the control of police and community safety officers. There will be the facility to record events as they take place. (Source: BBC)